Vladimir Putin The Broadcasting Standards Authority has thrown out an Auckland man’s complaint about a Seven Sharp reporter describing anti-gay Russian leader Vladimir Putin as homophobic. The man complained the reporter’s reference to ‘old homophobic Vladimir Putin’ was “inaccurate, biased and misleading”. The comment came in a story about the Russian government banning New Zealand couples from adopting Russian children, due to marriage equality in this country. The Broadcasting Standards Authority says calling Putin homophobic was not misleading, as his decision to enforce the anti-adoption law has been renounced internationally as anti-gay. “The comment was clearly analysis and commentary by the reporter, rather than a material point of fact, so it was not subject to standards of accuracy,” the BSA says in its decision. Putin signed Russia’s 2013 'anti-gay propaganda' law, which has been widely condemned by human rights groups, who says since is passage there have been surges in violence against lgbti people, arrests of gay rights protestors and an increase in gay Russians seeking asylum in other nations.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 6th November 2014 - 4:16pm